Fowles Auction Group
AWARDS 2006 AAMI
Fowles Auction Group
Imagine a state-of-the-art repair shop which is pumping out 200 jobs a week and has acres of cars waiting to be worked on. That seems unbelievable until you visit the repair facility of Fowles Auction Group in Altona, on the outskirts of Melbourne.
Fowles, Australia's biggest car auction company, was handling thousands of cars a year which could fetch better prices if they were visibly near-perfect. It was therefore logical to offer a smart repair service to its customers - comprising fleet and lease operators, government departments, finance companies and a few private sellers.
Fowles built a repair shop on its vast auction site and opened it in July 2004.
The shop has been has been purpose built for cosmetic repairs ‘ although on occasion it will handle a moderate hit. This explains its 12 downdraft refinish bays, one Lowbake booth, and a first in Australia Lowbake spray tunnel which can take up to three cars. Steve Taylor, who manages the shop, says that one bake cycle for three cars at a time makes economical sense if you have enough cars of similar colours to going through.
It takes three paint mix rooms to keep all the painters going. Each room is fully equipped with a Glasurit paint system ‘ which the company praises highly.
All guns are from DeVilbiss and all consumables come from 3M ‘ so that quality is standardised throughout the shop. Infrared drying is from three overhead and three mobile IRT units. The shop employs more than 30 people and each of the panel technicians has his own portable Festool work station.
Because the shop works almost exclusively on panel and bumper repairs, the only pulling necessary can be handled on a flat rack.
As one would expect, paintless dent removal is high on the processing list, using in-house qualified technicians plus visiting contractors. Taylor often uses a combination of PDR and conventional repair to achieve the best results.
There is not a great deal of contact with insurers at Fowles. Most of the repairs are requested by owners who want to present better vehicles at auction, so they are not making insurance claims. However, that doesn't mean there is no check on quality. A separate division of Fowles, called Inspection Services Australia (AIS), acts as an interface between owners and the repair shop. It inspects and reports on the condition of cars before they go in for repair and checks them afterwards.
The shop is an example of where a large corporation has instigated management by systems. DNS (Quote Plus)looks after quoting, scheduling and performance measuring. OH&S is absolutely by the book, and efficiency is rewarded.
POWELL'S COMMENT
A super efficient workshop for the specialist type of small, volume repairs. Fowles is designed for speed without compromising quality.
